Gender activism in Indonesia has made significant progress with advancements in women’s rights since Indonesia’s independence in 1945. Despite this, challenges remain largely stemming from, among others, deeply ingrained patriarchal norms and conservative interpretations of religion. Gender-based violence, discrimination, and unequal access to opportunities persist.
At the University of Melbourne 2023 Indonesia Forum, postgraduate and early-career researchers reflected on Indonesia’s gender activism and the goal of equality as a lived reality. In this article, the three authors, who organised the symposium, reflect on gender activism and how it has progressed over the past quarter of a century since the 1998 post-New Order Suharto regime—what is known as the Reformasi era. This article also includes the work of scholars Annisa Laura Maretha, Kanti Pertiwi and Alia Azmi who presented at the symposium.
Historical background
The oldest organised women’s movement in Indonesia, Putri Mardika. was established in the 1910s, before Independence. Some of their activities included raising money for girls who wanted to advance their education. Another notable organisation was Gerwani, which fought for female labour rights, women’s political voice, and challenged polygamy, among other struggles. In 1965, Gerwani was accused of being involved in the Communist Party’s (Partai Komunis Indonesia or PKI) attempted coup including the killing of six high-ranking army officers. Thus, from 1965-1998 under the ex-military General Suharto and his New Order regime, the state took over control of any organisations—political or otherwise—including women’s organisations. Nevertheless, scholar Annisa Laura Maretha argued at the symposium that Gerwani were vocal about the persecution they endured during the Suharto New Order regime.
Under President Suharto’s authoritarian leadership, women’s roles were reduced to motherhood and family affairs through the establishment of Dharma Wanita (translated as ‘the virtue of women’), an organisation for the wives of civil servants. Dharma Wanita’s focus was on women as ‘wives and companions’ for their husbands, housewives, ‘birthers’ of offspring or mothers and educators of children and as secondary breadwinners.
During the New Order regime, the state-controlled organisations for women were Dharma Wanita, its related organisation PKK (Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga or Family Welfare Movement) and KOWANI (Kongres Wanita Indonesia or Congress for Indonesian Women). It should be noted that Kowani was an independent organisation when it was established in 1928 until the start of the New Order era in 1966. Julia Suryakusuma, a sociologist well known for her weekly opinion column on gender rights issues in the Jakarta Post, described how, in this era, Kowani’s leadership and values were infiltrated by the New Order’s agenda. Another speaker at the Indonesia Forum, Kanti Pertiwi, spoke about how Dharma Wanita continued to actively promote their conservative form of gender ideology as wives of public servants, and thus remains a challenge to women’s rights movement.
The New Order regime effectively ended in May 1998, precipitated by the Asian economic crises, large-scale protests throughout Indonesia calling for democracy and the shooting death of four university student protestors. What followed was three days of mass riots, looting, arson, destruction and violence in Jakarta and other major cities. The violence included the mass rape of predominantly Chinese-Indonesian women. Well known Indonesian scholars such as Ariel Heryanto and Melani Budianta argue that what happened in May 1998 could be categorised as state-sponsored violence, and an attempt to divert attention from the New Order’s failings by scapegoating a minority group for the economic crises.
The May 1998 violence prompted human rights and gender activists and scholars to push for the establishment of an independent body that focuses on the protection of women, and the National Commission against Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) was established, although a quarter of a century later, Indonesia still has a long way to go in eliminating gender-based violence.
Another challenge for the gender rights movement, according to sociologist Rachel Rinaldo, is arguably the growth of radical Islamic groups which promote the idea that women are secondary to men, or need to be ‘controlled’. These groups use patriarchal interpretations of Islamic scriptures to justify misogyny and discrimination against women, from the rejection of Megawati Sukarnoputri as President to the growth of gender-based discriminatory laws. By 2022, there were over 400 laws that targeted or controlled women such as a mandatory hijab rule, a curfew for women, and mandatory male chaperones for women out at night. Moreover, in 2008, the anti-pornography law was enacted despite intense opposition from women activists. As argued by Indonesian studies scholar Pam Allen, the activists’ are concerned this law could be misused to control women’s freedom of expression, create a public perception that women are to blame for lewdness, and persecute women for practicing customary ritual (adat) ceremonies, amongst other types of persecution. An example of the misuse of this law is the 2020 case of two women who were charged with production of pornographic materials, while they were actually victims of non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
Generations of activists reflect on the movement and current challenges
Scholar Dana Fahadi’s research has found that the early generation pre-Reformasi era activists believe that one of the differences between the women’s movement in the past and the present is the object of the resistance itself. During the New Order period, activists in general had a common enemy in the authoritarian leadership of President Suharto. For instance, well-known activist Ita Fatia Nadia, states that in the 1980s-1990s, activist organisations—especially those focusing on human rights, such as Kalyanamitra, YLBHI, INFID, and Solidaritas Perempuan—emerged to address the human rights and developmental injustice crises in Indonesia as a result of the corrupt and militant New Order era. Moreover, a number of individual activists united in early 1998 to form Suara Ibu Peduli (SIP or Voice of Concerned Mothers) specifically as a protest action to voice the concerns of the middle class by addressing both the scarcity of milk and baby formula and the political crisis under Suharto. They called it ‘The Milk Politics’ as a word play of susu, (Indonesian for milk) which was also a code name for Suharto.
In the era of what sociologist Julia Suryukusuma describes as State Ibuism or state motherhood/wife, it was felt best to raise the issues of women in general through issues relating to mothers. This concept is further defined by scholar Monika Winarnita, as ‘Strategic Ibuism’ from postcolonial feminist theorist Gayatri Spivak’s concept of strategic essentialism. In other words, essentialised shared identity such as being a mother (ibu) can be used strategically in specific historical moments to create change through political movements. Concurring with this concept, in an interview with Fahadi, the activist Ita Fatia Nadia argued that SIP was useful for the women’s movement in general by using the ‘fresh and fragrant-looking’ ibu-ibu (plural form of mother/wife) to, in her words, ‘fool’ the skeptical public and the police because ‘confrontational’ activists such as Ita herself were marked as troublemakers.
Many early generation activists argued that contemporary activists need to rebuild a spirit of solidarity, even when the vision of what is the central aim of the resistance is varied and often fragmented. Nonetheless, Fahadi’s research shows that the diversity inherent in Indonesia’s contemporary gender activism movement creates more opportunities for collaboration and a more efficient resource distribution, and that generally the movement still works towards the same goal. Activists across sectors and generations are unwaveringly voicing their protest in response to Indonesia’s political climate in recent years and in the lead up to the 2024 election. These protests culminated on the 8th of March 2024 on social media #AksiHariPerempuanInternasional (#ProtestActionforInternationalWomensDay). The posts by Konde, an alternative online media for women and minorities, show that activists participated in street protests condemning what they saw as the abuse of power, collusion, and nepotism by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). They also raised their concerns about his support of the 2024 presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto who is accused of serious human rights abuses. Identifying as part of a younger generation of activists, Fahadi, along with other Indonesian transnational activists such as Pipin Jamson, Faiza Mardzoeki and Dina Afrianty, marched at the International Women’s Day rally in Melbourne with banners condemning Jokowi in solidarity with fellow gender activists protesting in Indonesia.
Early pre-Reformasi-era activists’ observations also include acknowledgement that their younger counterparts are very technologically savvy. However, they advised that younger activists should be more sensitive to, and understanding of digital technology’s ‘after effects’, such as the effects it may have on the lives of victims, survivors and other individuals involved, including possible threats, bullying, legal action, and other risks to their jobs and/or education. Fahadi believes that online activists must be aware that victims understand the risks that might come with exposing themselves in any way, even when their name is anonymised. There have been numerous occasions where concerned parties or even victims themselves have exposed details which could lead to individuals being identified and possibly harmed or persecuted. In addition, Winarnita’s research shows that Indonesian gender rights activists face online harassment.
Pre-Reformasi-era activists also see their younger counterparts’ style of activism as ‘reactive’ rather than proactive; instead of controlling the narrative, they react to an already existing one. In addition, some gender activists are concerned that the social media aspect could lead to the perpetuation of the ‘clicktivism/slacktivism’ phenomenon or the act of supporting a cause online with little effort. On the other hand, some of the more current younger generation of activists interviewed by Fahadi argued that the ‘reactiveness’ is often necessary to interact with social media algorithms by piggybacking on popular discussion, so they can insert their advocacy into the narrative.
The digital era of activism
Younger activists interviewed by Fahadi during her field research, such as a feminist community based in Yogyakarta, Gender Mahardika Yogyakarta, (previously known as Feminis Yogya), revealed that even though they recognise the importance of in-person activism strategies, they believe that digital strategies have been very effective in encouraging victims of gender-based violence to speak up about their experiences if they can do it anonymously. Furthermore, digital methods can overcome geographical distance and cut costs for the kinds of advocacy and literacy work that target a bigger audience, such as webinars or online discussions, which was proven to be effective during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The speed and ability of social media posts to become ‘viral’ in nature is very beneficial to gain support, such as signatures for a petition, or donations and other resources. However, Fahadi’s fieldwork has uncovered how Indonesians do not have equal access to technology, digital literacy, and internet access, especially outside of Java. The differences in language, social interaction, infrastructure, and quality of life in parts of Indonesia are important factors that need to be taken into account by gender activism. The digital divide and varying levels of communication infrastructure across the archipelago also means that in-person strategies are still very important to ensure inclusivity is attained.
The speed at which information flows on digital media has created an expectation that a problem can be resolved quickly. For example, by exposing cases of gender-based violence through online means, the public including new activists hope for immediate social condemnation of the perpetrators. Partly this strategy is used because victims cannot rely on the police to properly investigate their accusations. A potential problem with this ‘instantaneous’ mindset may result in the inadvertent dissemination of inaccurate and misleading information. Due diligence in fact checking information, understanding and applying ethical conduct and best practice that is promoted in face-to-face workshop for gender activists may be bypassed by these ‘instant activists’ on digital platforms. However, from her research on several gender activists in Indonesia, Fahadi found out that they are aware of these problems and have been taking action to address them.
Fahadi’s research on online gender based violence has found that even highly organised online activism has not always resulted in real world punitive actions for perpetrators whose actions have been exposed on social media. Even in circumstances where many women have shared their experiences of grooming and sexual, emotional or financial manipulation by the same individual, it has not been enough for law enforcement to charge them. This effort however, has encouraged women in similar situations to speak up and thus helped spread awareness of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Winarnita and co-authors have studied the work of Indonesian female journalists at Magdelene and Konde—online media that focus on gender issues. The journalists in these media outlets have collaborated with gender activist organisations such as Lentera Sintas Indonesia to report on gender violence and raise awareness of it using hashtags such as #MulaiBicara or #TalkAboutIt, arguably as part of Indonesia’s #MeToo movement. Indonesia’s online movement against sexual violence takes many forms, including social media discussion about prominent cases of sexual violence; and discussion about the Elimination of Sexual Violence Bill between 2016 and 2022. Alia Azmi in her symposium presentation concludes that social media allows the amplification of feminist perspectives.
To sum up, historical knowledge of gender-based violence coupled with digital skills to creatively subvert patriarchal norms is crucial. There are new opportunities in contemporary digital society and culture, but there are also new challenges, such as harm to victim/survivors, activists and others. Digital media has impacted all aspects of society and can create new subversive potential for gender activism, but it comes with risks.
Indonesia’s gender activism reflects a dynamic struggle for equality, marked by both achievements and obstacles. The research and presentations at the Indonesia Forum 2023 Symposium show how Indonesian gender activists have advocated across generations to break down cultural and gender barriers, promote inclusivity and combat discrimination through new strategies, be it digital or otherwise, for a future that promotes gender equality.
Authors: Dana Fahadi, Dr Monika Winarnita and Dr Wulan Dirgantoro.
Image: Young activists at Women’s March Yogyakarta, Zero Kilometre Point of Yogyakarta City, Indonesia, April 2019. Used with the permission of Dana Fahadi.
